Although Pokémon Scarlet and Violet has been out for four months now, players are still discovering new features not explicitly mentioned by Game Freak. The funny thing is, it’s sometimes unclear whether or not these features are intentional or glitches. This was the case with certain floating and flying Pokémon during battle.
Today, popular Pokémon content creator HoodlumCallum shared a clip of Decidueye flying above the ground in battle. This came as a shock because Decidueye’s default battle animation has it standing with its wings down.
After doing some testing with Scream Tail, another Pokémon that either floats or stands in battle, Callum learned the floating animation is triggered by a specific switch out. If a floating or flying Pokémon like Rotom switches out, the Pokémon that takes its place will also be off the ground, if it has a special animation for it. Alternatively, if the Pokémon that switched out was grounded, the next Pokémon to come in will also be on the ground.
Lewtwo then explained this is an intentional feature on Game Freak’s end. The first Pokémon you send out “deduces what the terrain is” for the next Pokémon that gets sent into battle. This is to account for bodies of water where Pokémon will either fly, float, or stand on a small platform.
Therefore, if the first Pokémon is floating (regardless of the actual terrain), the next one will be signaled to also float or fly if possible.
This feature is unique to specific Pokémon with wings or floating capabilities, including Gengar, Hawlucha, Oricorio, Dedicueye, and Scream Tail. Interestingly enough, there are certain winged Pokémon like Kilowattrel and Roaring Moon who always seem to be in the air during trainer battles despite having grounded animations in the wild.
